Agenda item

To consider the head of planning’s report. 

Cabinet considered the head of planning’s report on a joint local plan.  This proposed the development of a joint local plan with Vale of White Horse District Council, rather than the two councils working on separate plans. 

The Cabinet member for planning saw many advantages to the proposal.  It would allow the councils to work more closely together, share policies where appropriate, and share resources.  Both councils’ geography was similar, with rural areas and market towns, and a joint plan would allow for better planning of Didcot Garden Town.  Both councils’ corporate ambitions were similar; both had declared climate emergencies.  A joint local pan would also save costs as the councils had a shared planning policy team, and could share the costs of evidence gathering and the public examination. 

Cabinet agreed, believing that there were sound planning and practical reasons to develop a joint local plan.  Cabinet was reassured that, if necessary, local policies could be included in a joint plan to reflect local needs.  This would overcome the disadvantage of a joint plan covering a wider area and being less local.  Cabinet also noted that the current, adopted local plan would remain in place until a new joint local plan was adopted. 

Legislation allowed the councils to prepare a joint plan.  Cabinet discussed the two methods of doing this:

• Section 28 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 allowed two or more local planning authorities (district councils) to prepare a joint local plan.  The county council in two-tier areas, such as Oxfordshire, could be part of the plan-preparation process but could not be part of the formal decision-making, as this remained the responsibility of the district councils.  Under Section 28, the final, formal decisions at key local plan stages (consultations, publication, submission, adoption) were made either separately by each council or via a voluntary joint committee. 

• Section 29 of the 2004 Act enabled the county council to continue to
  have a strategic planning role working with district councils.  This allowed for the decision-making on a joint local plan to be conferred on a joint committee.  Under section 29, the county council would be a formal partner in the joint committee and therefore would have equal membership on that committee. 

Given the context of development plan making across Oxfordshire, with a strategic plan (the Oxfordshire 2050 Plan) already underway, and a shared management and policy team already in place for South Oxfordshire and the Vale, Cabinet considered that a joint local plan should be prepared in accordance with section 28 of the Act.  Scrutiny Committee had preferred the section 28 option also.  Cabinet considered that officers should be authorised to prepare the detailed arrangements and hoped that all members could be involved in the plan preparation at relevant stages, through feedback sessions.  Cabinet members asked officers to manage the risks by identifying them in the risk register, and by preparing contingencies and mitigations should the risks materialise. 

RECOMMENDED to Council on 25 March 2021 to:

(a)      agree, subject to the agreement of Vale of White Horse District Council, the preparation and production of a Joint Local Plan with Vale of White Horse District Council;

(b)      approve the Joint Local Development Scheme (March 2021) attached at appendix 1 to the head of planning’s report to Cabinet on 18 March 2021, and authorise the head of planning in consultation with the Cabinet member for planning, to make any updates;

(c)       agree the principle of governance to prepare and produce a Joint Local Plan under Section 28 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, and authorise the head of legal and democratic, in consultation with the head of planning, the Leader and Deputy Leaders, and the Cabinet members for planning and legal and democratic, to agree the detailed arrangements; and

(d)      if recommendation (a) above is not supported, to agree the preparation and production of a South Oxfordshire Local Plan and to authorise the head of planning, in consultation with the Cabinet member for planning, to publish a Local Development Scheme and agree any updates to it.